6-year-old back in school, suspension cleared

WASHINGTON – News Channel 4 reports that the 6-year-old boy who was suspended from a Silver Spring elementary school after being accused of holding his finger like a gun will have his record cleared.

According to Channel 4, the school’s principal stated she would rescind the suspension and expunge the incident from the boy’s record.

The incident happened on Dec. 20, and the boy served the suspension the next day.

The boy’s mother tells ABC 7 he was sent to the principal’s office three times the day of the incident, and the boy says he pretended that a pair of scissors was a gun that day as well.

But the boy tells ABC 7 that during the incident after which he was suspended, his friend – not him – said “pow,” and he pointed at her to tell her to stop.

See an interview with the boy by ABC 7 below.

EARLIER: Wednesday – 1/2/2013

WASHINGTON – A 6-year-old boy is back in school at a Silver Spring elementary school after being suspended — just what exactly led to that suspension is still at issue.

A letter to the boy’s parents from Renee Garraway, the school’s assistant principal, says the boy was suspended “for threatening to shoot another student,” and that the boy had already been spoken to about “another similar incident.”

Robin Ficker, an attorney for the boy’s family, says all the child did was hold his hand up as if holding a gun and point it at another student.

Montgomery County school spokesman Dana Tofig says the school system cannot comment on disciplinary actions because of privacy laws, but that the Dec. 20 suspension — which comes in the wake of the Newtown, Conn. shootings — is “not a knee-jerk reaction to a single incident.”

Tofig adds its very rare for a 6 year old to be suspended.

The boy was allowed back in school on Wednesday and Ficker says he’ll appeal the suspension.

In a letter to Judith Bresler, Montgomery County school system attorney, Ficker calls the boy “meek and mild” and states he had no intent to shoot anyone. Instead, Ficker insists, the boy was just playing.

Ficker adds, “If he did what he is alleged to have done in the classroom in an airport security station, the airport security personnel would have laughed at him.”